September 1st, 2009 by Peter Bevan

Andy Murray is refusing to look beyond his first round opponent despite entering the US Open draw seeded at number two and despite reaching the US Open final last year. Andy Murray is behind Roger Federer in the rankings, who also beat Andy Murray at the US Open final last year.

Andy Murray says that his past experiences has led him to think that there might be some surprise results as the US Open tournament progresses, meaning the draw could be blown wide open.

Speaking of the draw, Andy Murray could face the big server Ivo Karlovic in the US Open second round, and there are potential matches against the world number six Juan Martin del Potro and the world number three Rafael Nadal along the way.

Andy Murray also says that he is constantly trying to improve regardless of where he is in the rankings, and that this mentality was key to the success of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal over the years; the motivation to keep improving despite already being at the top of their game.

The world number one Roger Federer played his first round match against the wild card teenager Devin Britton in the opening day of the tournament, and Roger Federer took one hour and 28 minutes to kick start his US Open campaign winning 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

The scoreline suggests that the defending champion had it all his way, but was made to work hard as the American Devin Britton did manage to break Roger Federer twice and nearly set up a tie break in the third set to please the home crowd.

After the match, Roger Federer admitted it was a tricky game as his opponent had nothing to lose, whilst he had to deal with the pressure of playing as a five-time defending champion. Next up for Roger Federer is Simon Greul.

Also through to the US Open second round are Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko, both coming through in straight sets. The world number five Andy Roddick will face Marc Gicquel next whilst the world number eight Nikolay Davydenko will play against Jan Hernych.

Other top seeded players hoping to make it safely through to the US Open second round are Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Verdasco.

The world number four Novak Djokovic faces Ivan Ljubicic, world number seven Jo-Wilfried Tsonga faces Chase Buchanan, and the recent ATP 250 New Haven champion Fernando Verdasco faces Benjamin Becker. All these matches are scheduled to take place later today.

The US Open is taking place at the New York Flushing Meadows until September 13. However, not only are players hoping for success in this last Grand Slam of the year, but are hoping to qualify in the top eight to compete at the end-of-season Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which takes place from November 22 at the London O2 Arena.

So far, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray have qualified, so players will be hoping to rack up as many ATP points as they can from the upcoming ATP tournaments, including the US Open, in order to be in the top eight with the most ATP points.

Hundreds of ATP World Tour Finals tickets for each day of the tournament are still available to compare and buy at Tixdaq.com.